Saturday, 25 October 2014

After spending the last 6 weeks blogging about the Scottish Independence Referendum I find myself getting drawn into the murky world of politics again... and contemplate the value of doing so.

As many of my education followers will be aware I took a departure from my usual content with getting involved with the Scottish Independence Referendum. The reasons for this was not due to any political beliefs but because of the cultural conditions that the referendum helped establish.

However, a lack of leadership by the SNP/Yes Alliance killed the momentum and, along with it, the opportunity. I remained involved longer than I should have. The conditions that had peaked my interest with the change agents and optimists coming together got replaced with the moaners. I got so caught up that I hadn't realised the change and had joined the moaners.

For example, compare the post that I wrote on the day after the Independence Referendum with my last post:

A Pre-Occupied MindJust as I decide to stop writing about politics, I find myself getting drawn in again and for the same reasons as I did with the #Indyref... Not because of politics, but because of the concerning practices and because of the potential for change.

Reading reports about the Tarpaulin Revoluion, the events taking place are very concerning (Which, contrary to the BBC's "The Revolution will be Televised," it most certainly won't be!). But whether to get involved, or not?

Job Search: I'm currently looking for work as my startup plans are not going too well, so commenting on anything "Occupy" is a risk.

The Political Class: In my professional, personal life as well as my recent foray with indyref politics tells me that politicians simply don't care about listening to "the people" or their concerns.

Hypocrisy: politicians will praise protests and calls for reform in other countries but "Not in my backyard," (Or should that be not when it affects my wage and expenses)

Elitism: and cosy relationships are like something out of Atlas Shrugged

All of this is ironic given ITV Tonight show this week asked "Is Britain Happy" and included soundbites from David Cameron, and his desire to increase the nations happiness. Surely listening to, instead of arresting people for nothing, would be a pre-requisite.

Closed Minds

My interest is with reform in education and, in particular, social mobility. I realise, after much frustration, that UK education is too complex and/or senior managers have become too politicised as I've had more success in the US compared to the UK.

This was part of my reasons for getting involved with #The45Plus, I thought there might be another way to implement some of the ideas based on what's worked in the past... and possibly on a larger scale.

Some activists and "cybernats" found it bizarre that I would enter political discussions when I had no time for party politics. While I did write over 30 #indyref based posts in a month, the majority of these posts were based on how to
develop the right culture that would allow #The45Plus to gain momentum
and make some real change...with or without politicians!

Unfortunately the
culture was not carefully cultivated and "The Moaners" moved in, led by some angry publicity hungry politicians. Despite all that is wrong with our politicians and the political process this is the main reason that I hesitate to get involved... because while the movement will gain momentum, it will probably implode due to infighting, caused by a lack of culture. This is the reason I am reluctant to get involved.

Culture Matters

For those that are not aware, the #Indyref #VoteYes people were trending for 2-3
days solid after the referendum, which became known as #The45/#The45Plus. The reason this happened was because ofof the #Indyref #VoteYes and the "Network Effects" and "Positive Feedback Loops" that the campaign created.

The Network Effects are still there, all anyone needs to do to get them involved again are some "Positive
Feedback Loops." But boy! Getting the culture right when you have momentum sure ain't easy when you have a large number of people who are coming together! It's hard enough to do in the workplace... never mind with political activists who all have quite different agendas!

I wrote 29 posts in just over a month based on #The45Plus, most of these were on the importance of culture and/or how to develop a
positive culture and the need for unity, which as these posts highlight, can be achieved with some shared identity and a common goal. Pre-indyref these Scots wanted independence...post-#Indyref this disintegrated because a lack of unity and no leadership: #The45Plus Where Did it all Go Wrong?

How does Scotland go from every man, woman and child talking about politics in every coffee shop, bus, train and water cooler to 70 people attending a devo max rally 4 weeks later?

Sure, this was partly due to the referendum being a huge decision in the nations history, but it was also because of the momentum that was caused from these "Network Effects and Positive Feedback Loops" #Indyref and #VoteYes worked not because it was political, but because it was fun.

Old and new friends congregated at the #indyref water cooler and this diversity of people made it an enjoyable experience. People you know + enjoyable experience = more frequent and longer visits...which attracts new people to create more momentum.

We saw this momentum post referendum as the first 2 days people gathered to discuss the result and were also asking "What could we and should we do with this network?" when the only people who could lead this, Yes Scotland, didn't turn up the void got filled with angry people.

Did you see Doctor Who this week? "The group is lost and a leader is about to emerge. That leader needs to be you Clara and not the moaner" That's kind of leadership that was missing.

Today the only people visiting #The45Plus are angry nationalists, the fun has gone.

Is there an opportunity for the #indyref #VoteYes and #VoteNo to reclaim #The45Plus? Could it do so while adding other reformers to the group? (As I highlighted in my #The45Plus It's a Mindset post). It may be too late for this "brand" but could there be an opportunity for Parliament Square and #Indyref people to amplify their voices for the movement (regardless of what hashtag is used) to evolve? So that anyone who wants to see reform shares the same space.

In my opinion most of the #indyref people voted Yes because not because
they wanted independence from England but independence from
Westminster. If the people at Parliament Square were to engage with #Indyref
#VoteYes #VoteNo #IndyScot #bbcbias #Bettertogether and vice versa would there be more chance of affecting change? (Although there may be the odd snide comment from some committed cybernats)

Three people to connect with are @Bravemany, @Zen432 & @Tw33tingOwl (Who is English and will be sight seeing around Parliament Square today and was very supportive of #Indyref)

Be the Change... Because Politics Won't!

What ever happens under the stars tonight without Tarpaulin or pizza boxes to protect from the elements and without the leadership of politicians to protect the democratic right to protest... make sure that the leadership is there to facilitate all the people who are committed to change are under the same Tarpaulin on Social Media after the event so that collectively the change that people want to see remains a possibility.

I will not be getting involved in the political aspect of this movement because I do not believe that politicians will move, it is obvious to me that they have no interest in "Listening to the people."

I have already done as much as I can by detailing how to work on the culture. If enough people remain together and committed to change through small random acts of kindness (Food banks, supporting small/ethical business, volunteering, mentoring) then the people will lead with so much positive change that politicians will not be able to object.

Then, if successful, in their desperation for popularity politician with then align themselves with the cause, and will probably end up trying to take ownership and credit for it too.

I'll leave you by converging my interests with education, the potential for change these political activists have and organisational culture by quoting a change agent I admire, Peter Sheahan and his colleagues who suggests that educators need to "Stop Lobbying and Start Changing" which is from:

Monday, 20 October 2014

I have not always been a fan of having a sales background.Today I am proud of my sales experience and my abilities. What changed? Today I only sell projects and ideas that I believe in... Actually, I don't sell anything! I put forward an argument for projects that encourages people to "Buy into" an idea once I've outlined the benefits.

Today I hope to encourage educators to "Buy into" the idea of Newlands Junior College in Glasgow which opens today. I will detail the benefits to educators and encourage people adopt some "Optimism Bias" towards this new education model.

First, what's my association with Newland Junior College? I tried to contact Jim McColl when I first heard about the college a few years back, but didn't hear back from anyone. How much do I know about the college? I've been on their website and read a few press releases about the model.

Why try to encourage buy in for this college when I'm not involved and don't know a great deal about it? Because;

1) I like what I see. I mean I really, really like what I see! The model ties in with a lot of my findings
2) I have a standing offer of "How can I help" anyone involved in education.
3) I'm gloriously and unashamedly "overly optimistic" about the potential of this College.

I have enough evidence to believe that this will be the source of education reform within Scotland, the UK and maybe even globally.

Education & #The45Plus: A Culture Experience
My blog has been taken over by politics over the last month, the reason for this is because I had realised how little progress I was making in my attempts to make a difference in Further Education. I saw in the #Indyref #VoteYes and #The45Plus a forum where I could implement some of these ideas... and on a larger scale.

Three of my #Indyref posts were on the potential that I saw in this network. Then 19 posts were in some way related to the importance of culture when establishing this network. Like a handful of other people, I tried to influence the culture of the forum, but the attempts turned out to be futile.

I am extremely grateful for this experience! It has reminded me:

How fragile culture is

How easy it is to shatter

How it must be constantly monitored and cultivated

Culture! Culture! Culture!
More importantly than anything this reminded me that culture is the responsibility of every member of staff and every stakeholder. In education, a single negative event or soundbite in the press involving a student, parent, politician or member of staff and the culture can be badly affected and difficult to repair.

Carefully cultivating culture is the reason Zappos offers staff a months wages to quit after the induction period. This is why members of the Apple 2 team were given an Apple PC during induction, if they used it they got to keep it... if they didn't they were sacked.

How can you improve on a product that you don't use? Compare this with politicians preference for elite schools for their children and the Education Secretary's advice to Headteachers of "Stop whinging" (See P19 Culture in FE Report), or tenure in the US and "The Lemon Dance"

My frustration with politicians because of what they had simultaneously created and then destroyed with #The45Plus led me to write two posts exploring the contribution to education, the built environment and the economy compared with business people.

Scanning through my bookshelf looking for advice, reflection or even a bit of escapism could only ever lead to one destination: Ayn Rand.

Over-Optimism and Over-Confidence

I am re-reading "Atlas Shrugged" at the moment and this comment from Rand's journal jumped out at me;

"Dagny's error is over-optimism and over-confidence... she thinks she can do more than an individual actually can. She thinks she can run a railroad single-handedly, she thinks she can make people do what she wants or needs, by the sheer over-abundance of her own energy; she will show them how, she can teach them and persuade them, she is so able that they'll catch it from her... This can't be done. This is her crucial error. This is where she fails" Ayn Rand, Journal April 18, 1946.

Now I know plenty of people have issues with Rand and her philosophy, so please allow me to put Dagny Taggerts plight in the context of less divisive and more practical example.

If we look at Rands character within Dave Logan's "Tribal Leadership" scale we will find that Dagny Taggart is a Stage 5 leader working with Stage 2 Teams. She only wins when she collaborates with other Stage 5 leaders before, eventually, switching to work with Stage 5 teams permanently... these teams are capable of changing the world.

These teams also don't need to be big, Silicon Valley, HP and Google all started out with 2-3 people. Unfortunately I am not in contact with too many Stage 5 teams (few people are as only 2% of organisations operate at Stage 5), but I sure do support them when I see them.

Stage 3 Teams:"I'm great... You're not" The attitude of most teams

There is plenty of information out there to detail how to make culture work for any organisation that is interested in the topic. But few organisations seem to be.

For example, I contacted 4 senior members of the Further Education Learning Technology Action Group (FELTAG) as I felt the current course of action could be improved. In particular I felt that that the culture could be affected in a more efficient manner with the adoption of technology. (See FELTAG Cultural Considerations and The Problem with FELTAG)

How was my FELTAG input received? One person ignored me, one person (who I had liaised with for over a year) requested that "we cease communications"; 2 people said they would value my contribution... but never came back to me or responded to any follow up emails.

I have spend the last 2 years trying to make some new ideas work and have had to abandon the plans I was working to because the culture simply wasn't right. (See Leaving FE)

Unity Matters

Culture matters. Unity Matters. Collaboration Matters. These are in short supply between some education stakeholders... check the social media feeds and see what the employer/employee relations are like in Education. There is very little unity or collaboration between educators and politicians.

In my various attempts to make a difference I have been guilty of "Optimism bias." I have myself to blame. I've met MIT's Bill Aulet on three occasions over the last 4 years and each time he's advised me "EdTech is tough." So I was warned... but I have no regrets.

When people judge their chances of experiencing a good outcome - landing a big account, getting promoted, having a successful marriage, making a good financial investment - they estimate their odds to be better than average. When they consider something bad happening, they assume odds lower than what they estimate for others.Optimism bias inflates over-confidence. It is the reason that 90% of drivers think they're above average behind the wheel of the car. It's why almost all newlyweds believe there is 0 chance of their marriage will end in divorce, even when they know that 50% of marriages self-destruct.

It's the reason new restaurants in big cities continue to open, despite well documented failure rates as high as 90%. Restaurants know the numbers, but they do not think they apply to them. In regarding ourselves, successful people tend to be optimists. (A good thing too. Without it, people wouldn't get married, or plunge their life savings into a startup. A society that doesn't take risks based on optimism is doomed).But something happens to our optimism when we stop evaluating ourselves and begin evaluating our peers chances of succeeding. We're not as optimistic when we take ourselves out of the equation. In fact, we can become pessimists and cynics. As evidence, gauge your level of optimism when you present one of your cherished ideas in a meeting. It should be high. Compare that to your level of optimism when an arch rival presents his or her best idea in the same meeting. It's probably not as high. Part of this is predictable envy and competitiveness; we don't mind a rival succeeding, but not more than us or at our expense. Part of it is the difficulty in being optimistic about someone else's abilities where we have no control over the outcome. But much of it is simply our failure to be generous in extending our optimism to others. That's the downside of "Optimism Bias." We may see everything that could go wrong with the other persons idea while remaining blind to what could go wrong with ours. It's not a quality that we should hang on to.If we can take the positive spirit inside us toward what we are doing now and extend it to what other people are doing - in other words, make our optimism contagious - then each of us has a better chance of becoming a person who can rise from a setback that might crumble others, a manager who doesn't yield to the standard cynicism and negativity, and a leader whom others will follow. Marshall Goldsmith, Mojo

Newlands Junior CollegeIn my previous post I detailed how a culture of suspicion, mis-trust and cynicism between educators and politicians can lead to good ideas being dismissed (along with bad presentation, questionable implementation and poor roll out)

This poor politician/educator relationship has led to some unfair comparisons with state and charter schools/academies in the US and UK. I don't think it is a fair comparison because one has the autonomy to set the culture, the other I think has too much "history" to foster the right culture.

Untangling this history is a messy business and you'd be forgiven for throwing your hands up and saying "Let's scrap it all and start again." Something that I think both politicians and educators might agree on!

But different treatment between academies and other schools will only add to any animosity and comparisons. Just because a charter school has the autonomy to set the culture, this is not to say that they will set the right culture. The wrong culture along with rolling academies out too quickly could be disastrous... as we are already seeing in the UK and US.

However, just because the relations between policy makers and state educators is low due to politicians making questionable decisions... is it fair to be cynical or envious of a new education model?

New & Alternative Edu programme: Isn't that the Reform we are all keen to see?

My plans in UK education have not panned out. I have suffered for the same reasons that educators do. It's been exta-ordinarily difficult for me over the last 4 years... Especially the last 2-3 years.

But am going to take Marshall Goldsmiths' advice regarding "Optimism Bias" and wish Newland's Junior College every success!

Furthermore, I would like to extend an offer to pass any ideas I have had over the last few years to the college... and to assist in any way I can with the implementation of any projects they might feel is worth exploring further.I would strongly encourage my education contacts to do the same, and not even out of any sense of alturism or optimism, but because I think that if you let them... they just might save your bacon!

"Some teachers are enthusiastic about the concept. Others are more skeptical and see potential risks: for instance, taking a child out of a school where they are settled and have friends is always something of a risk"If a student is disengaged with school, what kind of friends will there be the potential for them to be settled in with? Are they likely to "Fall in with the chess club?" or "Fall in with the wrong crowd?"Steve Jobs parents MOVED TO A DIFFERENT TOWN because his parents were worried that young Steve was getting in with a bad crowd. Is part of KIPP schools impressive results for the same reason? Malcolm Gladwell suggests that it might do:"To become a success at what they do KIPPSTERs have to shed part of their own identity because the cultural legacy they have been given does not match their circumstances – not when middle and upper class families are using weekends and summer vacations to push their children ahead. Their [KIP students]communities do not give them what they need. So what do they have to do? They give up their evenings and weekends and time with friends – all the elements of their old world – and replace them with KIPP" Malcolm Gladwell, Blink

The largest teachers union the EIS says it is not opposed to the creation of the junior college but is not a cheerleader for it either.

Why not? Unions like EIS should be cheering from the rafters! A counter culture like this could wring in the changes across the board. NJC will have an open door policy and I hope this will be a well trodden path for reformers at other schools and colleges. Maybe it will even act as the kind "free space" that change agents need in order to wring in the changes... This kind of space is vital for reform! (For more info see "Twitter #EdChats: Chat or Change?).A spokesman said that while the motivation behind it was sound it seemed to duplicate some of the work of existing partnerships between schools and colleges and some of the Wood Commission's recommendations.I don't mean to be controversial but... Seriously? Are you kidding me? The mismatch between education and employment is a HUGE concern! I've seen reports like the Wood Commission since I've been involved with FE. All these reports seem to do is keep civil servants in a job! Who better to make up a curriculum around the job market and establish links with industry than a captain of industry*

* With the right motivations and the right level of due diligence! As NJC appear to have.

How many jobs have those involved with the Wood Commission created compared with Jim McColl? Here are 4 examples to back up any controversy about this kind of suggestion;

We have so many local and national enterprise, entrepreneurship, LEPs, career advisors and apprenticeship schemes that they are coming out of our ears... all producing fancy reports, but I do wonder about the value of it all... or the return on investment (or the level of collaboration!)

The union said that they did not oppose philanthropists like Mr McColl supporting education but believed proper funding of the state system was the best way to ensure consistent high quality provision.

I'm not sure that I agree with this. Not because of anything that the school is doing, but the culture between the various stakeholders. There needs to be unity. Unity isn't easy. It's hard work!

In my opinion, there is too much suspicion and cynicism between teachers and other stakeholders whether parents, governors, Ofsted, politicians or employers. Surely it's difficult to have Maverick Buccaneering Head Teachers when the the culture is this fragmented.

It can feel as though educators are under fire by everyone, this is not something that I am trying to do here. Quite the opposite! It takes a village to raise a child... this is why I believe that private education works so well.

But the villagers that used to raise the children in the inner cities have all gone. From what I can see NJC is going to be connecting the first cohort of students to some new villagers through mentors and guaranteed progression.

With this new, lean and unencumbered school there will be new learning ideas and methods. Mr McColl and Mr White have already stated that NJC will complement, and work in tandum with, the state sector and has a guarantee of an apprenticeship or College place for students.

This will assist FE with admissions... this is a win-win situation for all stakeholders are this may have been a group of young people who could have otherwise dropped out of the education system.

I do not think that the stakes could not be higher for FE either. It is my belief that FE is in a state of decline and risks some serious threats from new suppliers, so collaborating with a small independent college could deliver significant benefits. Need evidence of this?

There will be more posts and reports detailing why I feel this college is a good idea. For the moment, I hope that I have put a convincing argument forward for educators accept Newlands Junior Colleges' open invitation to visit the college and to collaborate with them.